TCS BGADrive SSD Review (64GB) – An Exclusive Look The Newest ‘Mission Critical’ TCS SSD

TCS BGADRIVE SPECS AND COMPONENTS

BallTCS BGADrive SSD is a SATA Ball Grid Array (BGA) SSD that measures only 31mm x 31mm.

BGA refers to the interface on the base of the SSD that is used to connect the BGADrive and perhaps the best means of displaying this is with TCS’ own specification diagram:

TCS BGADrive Ball design

The TCS BGADrive (TBG31S) is available in capacities of 16, 32 and 64GB and is available in both PATA and SATA derivatives.   The SATA version (our sample) is a SATA 2 SSD that is capable of up to 100MB/s read and 90MB/s write transfer speeds while PATA is a bit slower at 42MB/s read and 36MB/s write. Power consumption is greater for the PATA design, with listed 1.35W read and 1.6W write average while the SATA details 1W read and 1.15W write. The BGADrive meets MIL-STD-810, has 3.2mil hour MTBF (mean time before failure),  has data retention of 10 years and has a 60,000 program/erase cycle lifespan.

TCS BGADrive Specs

Inside the TCS BGADrive lies a Hyperstone 32-bit RISC four channel processor (A2-RAP09) and 4 modules of Micron SLC 16GB NAND flash memory (29F32G08ABAAA).

TCS ProcessorTCS Memory

The SSDs firmware is stored within the device flash and loaded into internal memory by a boot ROM. Formatted capacity of our 64GB engineering sample was 61GB and a TCS BGA Block Diagram is as displayed:

BGADrive Diagram

One comment

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    Abdullateef AL Fozaie

    How is this an editors choice.. Read/Write slower than mechanical, can’t buy it, overpriced (probably) only thing going for it is that it could be used in drones for “collateral Damage”

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